But nothing evinces, perhaps, more clearly Christ's total lack of scientific knowledge than his holding a man responsible for his belief, and condemning for disbelief, as he does in numerous instances (see Mark xvi. 16), for a man could as easily control the circulation of the blood in his veins as control his belief.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

Does it not, in short, deny the craving of our nature for an ultimate peace behind all tempests, for a blue zenith above all clouds?
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

However, I was mightily pleased with her being there, I having long longed for to know her, and they being gone, I paid the fiddlers L3 among the four, and so away to bed, weary and mightily pleased, and have the happiness to reflect upon it as I do sometimes on other things, as going to a play or the like, to be the greatest real comfort that I am to expect in the world, and that it is that that we do really labour in the hopes of; and so I do really enjoy myself, and understand that if I do not do it now I shall not hereafter, it may be, be able to pay for it, or have health to take pleasure in it, and so fill myself with vain expectation of pleasure and go without it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Men can differ in nature, in so far as they are assailed by those emotions, which are passions, or passive states; and to this extent one and the same man is variable and inconstant.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

It looks a God-forsaken place, does it not?" "It seems a strange place to see cottages," said Miss Falkner.
— from Jill's Red Bag by Amy Le Feuvre

Nos zelo fidei catholicæ, cuius sumus & esse volumus defensores in omnibus (vt tenemur) moti salubriter & inducti, nolentes huiusmodi hæreses aut errores infra terminos nostræ potestatis, quatenùs poterimus, oriri, seu quomodolibet pullulare: assignamus vos coniunctim & diuisim, ad omnes & singulos libros, libellos schedulas, & quaternos huiusmodi doctrinā dictorū Iohannis, Nicholai, Iohannis, & sociorum sequacium, seu opinionum aliquam minùs sanam continentes, vbicúnq;, & in quorumcúnq; manibus, possessione, seu custodia inueniri poterunt, infra libertates vel extra, inuestigandum, capiendum, & arrestandum, & penes concilium nostrum cum omni celeritate possibili deferri faciendum, vt tunc ibidem de ijsdem ordinare valeamus, prout de auisamento concilij nostri prædicti fore viderimus faciendum: ac etiam ad proclamandum, & ex parte nostra firmiter inhibendum, ne quis cuiuscúnq; status, gradus, seu conditionis fuerit, sub pœna imprisionamenti & for­is­fac­tur­a­tion­um, quæ nobis forisfacere poterit, aliquas huiusmodi prauas & nefarias opiniones manutenere, docere, pertinacitérque defendere, clàm vel palam, seu huiusmodi libros, libellos, schedulas, & quaternos detinere, scribere, vel scribi facere, aut emere vel vendere præsumat quouis modo; sed |827| omnes & singulos huiusmodi libros, libellos, schedulas, & quaternos secum habitos & inuentos, ad mandatum nostrum vobis reddat, seu reddi faciat indilatè.
— from Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (12 of 12) Richard the Second, the Second Sonne to Edward Prince of Wales by Raphael Holinshed

He shivered—not with the cold of it, though it did breathe of underground damps and doubtful growths, but from a feeling of its having been sent after him to make him go down again—for did it not indicate some opening to the outer air?
— from Donal Grant by George MacDonald

“Ah! you will hardly deny it now, I suppose.”
— from Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas

Lord, Lord, what shall I do?—Well, dear friend, to let you see I scorn to be jealous, and that I dare trust my mistress with you, take her back, for I would not willingly have her frighted, and I am resolved to see who's there; I'll not be daunted with a bugbear, that's certain:—Prithee, dispute it not, it shall be so; nay do not put me to swear, but go quickly: There's an effort of pure friendship for you now.
— from The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 04 by John Dryden

Doubtless; its nature is such that one may recognize that it is always such as it is, and that it could never be different in the future; so that, should one later on again contemplate it, it will be found similar to itself (unchanged).
— from Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3 In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods by Plotinus

She came one day in November; I should have liked to put off her visit because I had no fire, and I had no fire because the chimney smoked.
— from The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 Boule de Suif and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant